My poor sweet corn

[NatalieCooke]

Could anybody advisor me what has gone wrong with my sweetcorn?
I grew Swift (from seed) and mini cobs which I bought from the garden centre.
I plant both at opposite ends of the vegetable patch and in the correct block system.
I haven't managed to eat a single cob.
Hope someone can help me, luckily it hasn't put me off growing them the following year.

[Bigmallly]

That's why I don't grow them Natalie, I think it's lack of pollination but not 100% sure.

[Nannysally99]

I think BM is right Natalie.
Every time I passed ours they got a good shake to spread the pollen, no probs with Swift at all

[Greenleaves]

I would agree with the big man, definitely looks like lack of pollination, I always give mine a shake to assist the process and grow 30 plants in a block. Its a race when they are ready between me and the wasps

[Jungle Jane]

How close were your plants to each other? I plant mine about 10" apart. It looks like pollination problem,I'm surprised there's so few,when you harvested them,were the brown dead silks still on the end of the cob or had a bug eaten the silks? It can't be pollinated if there's no silks there to pollinate? Or they just need help with pollination,gently shaking to help them release there pollen,I did this a few times you can't go wrong. I must recommend a great variety to you,I grew them this year ovation f1,better than my previous favourite Seville as they're sweeter,even in the sun lacking summer.

[Bill HH]

It was a bad year for mine too, sweet corn usualy does very well for me but this year despite getting off to a good start early on they just refused to ripen. i also had a plague of very tiny snails eating the silks right off.
i did harvest some but no where near what i had hoped for and many were missing the end of cob seeds. Mine were swift by the way.

[NatalieCooke]

The swift didn't grow very tall at all, dont think even think they grew waist high.
I'll give them another go next year.
Thanks guys for all your help!

[Chippy Minton]

We had the same experience, grew to below waist height, one cob per plant and similar results to you. I agree it seems to be lack of pollination. I just cut off the ripe kernels, cooked the cobs that were just essentially baby corn and declared, "Look what I grew", neglecting to mention how much space one serving of corn had taken up

I'll be growing them again next year because:
a) I have some seeds over
b) This time next year Rodney..........

[4390evans]

Yeah mine are like the second lot too. There is always next year to try again.

[Zelenina]

Hi Natalie. Corn can be a bit tricky. First the cobs on the right, which are presumably Swift, look like they were only partly pollinated. Every yellow kernel was attached to a silk that got pollinated by at least one grain of pollen falling on it. The gaps are due to silks that didn't get any pollen. One solution is to grow more plants in bigger blocks so there is a better chance of pollen landing on all of the silks. Or you can help them get pollinated by shaking pollen from the tassels onto the silks, as others have said.

The hollows in many of the kernels make me think that you also picked them a bit too late, after the kernels had started turning chewy. The right time to pick them is when the kernels still look nice and rounded, and creamy liquid spurts out when you stick a thumbnail into one. Clear liquid means a bit too early and doughy is past their best. You can peel back a bit of the husk to test them.

The ones on the left are presumably the mini cobs, which I'm guessing are meant to be eaten as baby corn. They are mostly unpollinated and I can only see a few kernels from silks that got pollinated. But that actually doesn't matter with baby corn because you're meant to eat it before it has the chance to get pollinated, soon after the silks start showing. They should be less than 4 inches long at that stage, with no kernels developed. So it looks as if you picked those too late as well.

[Lisasbolt]

With the baby corn, as soon as you see the silk is purple, way way way before it starts to dry, you must harvest. It is immature sweetcorn (in very basic terms) so you do not want it to get pollinated and start to form kernels.

I had mixed results this year with my sweetcorn, i grew incredible Mr F, some did not pollinate and look just like yours others were amazing. They grow a lot of corn over here, and i cannot believe how close the plant it, if anyone knows how to do it surely the farmers do. Pretty much every 4/5 inches, so i am going to try that next year. Of course in blocks.

Good luck trying again next year

[vixylix]

I agree with Zelenina regarding the baby cobs - they dont want to be pollinated, in fact you want to pick them before they are - I picked mine as soon as they silks were showing and the cobs were big enough to pull off the plant and they were all really good.

I left a few too long and they had the spiky bits like your picture - I think they have just been left too long. I cut those bits off and ate the rest though and they still tasted good!

[Jungle Jane]

I thought the corn on the left was swift & the small ones mini cobs. I don't think either are baby corn?

[NatalieCooke]

The cobs on the left were the mini cob and the ones to the right were the swift.

I did try to harvest a couple earlier on in the year and they looked pretty much the same they do now.
I waited until the "hairy" part had turned Brown and picked some.

I've just tested the colour of the liquid from a couple of corns and it's a bright yellow liquid. They were really hard to pierce too.

[Jungle Jane]

I've never grown mini cobs/baby cobs,I'm surprised they're longer than the swift.